Prelude in C Sharp Minor
by duskglow
Summary: Luna Lovegood is lonely and sad as she gets on the train for Hogwarts. Will she find friends? A companion to Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# Minor.


A/N: This is a companion piece to Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# Minor. I will explain more below.

Luna Lovegood, age 11, hugged her daddy, Xenophilus lovegood, and told him goodbye as the scarley train waited for her. She was excited to finally go to Hogwarts, even though sadness still cloyed at her. It wasn't helped by the fact that she saw her father wipe away a tear when he thought she wasn't looking. She knew she was odd, but she was not dumb! She wasn't!

As she hauled her trunk up to the steps, she looked around with her big, silver eyes, and was amazed at all of the sights and sounds. She lugged her trunk to the compartment that Ginny, her friend since childhood, was occuyting, currently with a couple of older girls. She sat down, and started reading the quibbler. It was upside down, but no one realized the her father printed the newspaper in such a way that you could see different things if you looked at it upside down, if you knew where to look.

A boy named Harry Potter, a girl named Hermione Granger, and Ginny's brother Ron were also in the compartment, chattering about nothing at all. Ron kept tossing Luna sidelong glances, but she knew what Ron thought of her. He called her Looney, he had called her that ever since they were children, but she couldn't help it if he didn't see what she did. It still hurt her, but she thought she could get past it. She saw Harry looking at her funny, but didn't pay much mind to it and continued reading her copy of the Quibbler.

Scene change

Harry was sitting in the compartment with his friends, when a silver-eyed, dirty blonde haired girl walked into the compartment.

He saw something in her eyes that he could not tear himself away from.

He saw the same sadness that was reflected in his own.

Harry did not tell many people this, but he never felt like he belonged, like a stranger in a strange land. His relatives had knocked that out of him from the very beginning, and a year of friends and school hadn't done much to make it much better. He went through the motions, and even found some things fun, but he thought it far better to be off on his own flying his broom than spending time with his friends. He liked them, sure, but they weren't his family. He didn't have family.

And when he saw Luna, he saw a kindred spirit.

He couldn't stop stealing glances at her.

Scene change

They finally arrived in the castle, and it came time for the sorting. When her name was called, Luna walked dreamily to the sorting hat and it was put on her head.

"Oh my", the had said in her ear. "I haven't seen one like you in quite a while. You are destined for great things, great things indeed. But where to put you?"

She smiled to herself. The hat had wrackspurts all around it.

"Wrackspurts, you say? Hmm. Better be... RAVENCLAW".

Luna stood up, politely handed the hat back, and walked to her table.

The sorting finished, and with a few words from Dumbledore, the feast began.

Some older girls tried to engage her in conversation, but when she brought up nargles and wrackspurts, they scooted away, and soon she was sitting on her own at the end of the Ravenclaw table. Tears threatened to spill, but she hoped that she could hold them in until she got to her dorms.

Finally the dinner ended, and the prefects took the first years back to their dorms. Luna got to her bed, pulled the covers tight, and fell on it, burying her face in the blankets to hide the sobs.

Scene change

Harry Potter was not religious. But that evening, he found himself praying for Luna.

Scene change

One of Luna's new roommates, Rebecca Smithson, walked over to Luna's bed, and poked her head into the curtains. She saw Luna with her head buried in the blankets, sobbing her heart out. Rebecca had not made any effort to greet Luna, but wasn't happy with how she had been treated.

"What's wrong?"

Luna poked her head out, her eyes red with tears, and her nose stuffy.

"I was hoping that I could make friends and belong somewhere, but I don't and I'm lonely and I miss my daddy and I miss my mummy", she wailed, and hid her face in the blankets again.

Rebecca rubbed her back and let her cry it out.

"Can we be friends?", she said.

Luna poked her head out, hiccuped once, and sniffed. "Do – do you mean it?", she said, hesitantly.

Rebecca smiled.

"Of course I do."

Luna wiped her nose on her sleeve, and sat up on her bed, Indian style.

"Please, Rebecca", she sniffed. "If you're just teasing me -"

"I'm not teasing you. I didn't like how they treated you. And everyone needs at least one friend."

Luna smiled, for the first time since she'd got on the train. Maybe it was going to be OK after all.

Scene Change

The next morning, Harry invited Luna to sit with him at the Gryffindor table. Ron looked like he was about to say something insensitive, but a death glare from Harry took care of that problem, and he went back to eating. Luna only went if she could take Rebecca with her.

Harry still saw sadness in Luna's eyes. But it was joined by a sparkle.

Maybe prayers are answered after all.

A/N

Rachmaninoff was a stranger in a strange land, just like Luna. Exiled from his home country of Russia, he eventually ended up in the USA as a professor and touring pianist, but he never forgot his roots, and you could hear the homesickness in his music.

I was thinking about what story I could write to go with that piece, and Luna seemed to fit the best – she was about as homesick, I think, as Rachmaninoff, and if you listen to the piece while reading this, perhaps you can hear the different parts of the story in the music itself.

I'm trying to think about what kind of music I would use for different characters, but I think Luna gets the sad and homesick music, because she is a sensitive soul who never belonged – just like Harry.


End file.
